the actual individuals. so to have the foreclosure on themselves and saying it's a system that has created this bubble to burst as opposed to perhaps blaming it on the individuals that their houses have foreclosed on them. >> linnwood, what about you? >> i'm from new jersey. i have to agree. you know, he is putting the blame on the system, not on the individuals. individuals were buying houses, sometimes second houses they could not afford, and banks were allowing this to happen. so i disagree with putting it on the system. you have to have individual responsibility. that's what this country was founded on. so i disagree with the president. you know, we need to let the market control these issues, and the market will correct itself. that's what's great about the market. you know, i -- it's deeply concerning to me to have a

president who thinks that we need a government that needs to help people live their lives. we have to, you know, have individual responsibility. >> would you say that you align yourself with the philosophy of the tea party movement? >> i consider myself to be a little bit more establishment. so, i mean, i haven't really studied the tea party movement that much. so i won't say that i am directly in line with all of the their philosophies, but i definitely agree with smuf their beliefs. >> i want to come back to philosophy in a moment. last week three things happened. we had the president's remarks in falls church, virginia. he referred to some people. he travelled to the auto show and said some people would want to see detroit go bankrupt, and then we had the national prayer breakfast in which the president said some people may not be as concerned about the poor. that interview that mitt romney had on cnn saying i'm not concerned about the very poor. there's a seeshl safety net.

i'm concerned about the milddle class. what's going on here? >> oblik remarks to what mitt romney has said them and almost contemporaneously so when said it. the white house is having it both ways and the campaign having it both ways. we won't jump into the campaign now. let's wait until the republicans settle who the nominee is. for the longest time the obama political team has felt that mitt romney is going to emerge as the nominee. the president wasting no time responding to him, although indirectly in terms of not mentioning any names but it's very clear. it was clear at the university of michigan in ann ar bore where i covered the president where he talked about not letting the auto companies go under, and in his comments this past week in virginia and at the prayer breakfast.

there's no doubt in anybody's mind who is even nodding off during the republican debates that the president was speaking about mitt romney. this is the way they're going to handle it for the foreseeable future. we think that it's going to be probably in maybe april or may, depending on when the republicans come to terms with their nominee, the president will take the gloves off and the name mitt romney will pass his lips publicly. >> peter marra is joining us from george mason university. he's a white house correspondent that covering politics for cbs news heard on the radio. she's the author of the tea party and the remaking of republican conservatism. bob, i'll turn to you for questions from your students at george mason university. >> yes. jim. go ahead. >> chris mclaughlin. my question is for anita.

the tea party is labeled as the party of the extreme right, so how do you explain the overwhelming support in florida and nevada for mitt romney, who is a moderate? >> your reaction. >> it's a good question that you ask, and i just published yesterday an op-ed in "the washington post" that argued that in many ways mitt romney has moved to endorse the central policy preferences, the central issues stands of both grassroots and elite tea partiers. as he has done that, over the course of the republican primaries, more and more conservative republicans who say they support the tea party have moved toward him. now, there's still a lot of tea partiers who are skeptical of mitt romney. they told us they weren't sure they could believe him, because he changes his positions.

i think it's fair to say by now half of tea party supporters are voting for romney against other candidates in the republican primaries we've seen so far. i expect that to accelerate as people come to terms with the fact that he's their best bet to put up against obama. >> let me follow sxwrup on the question and go back to the book that she wrote. it is out now available at your bookstore and also online at amazon.com. you write that if the president is re-elected in 2012, the grounded fears will remain. republicans supported by tea partiers will continue to push against democratic priorities. if obama is defeated, the republican president that replaces him comes under strong pressure to accept radical cuts in public programs that benefit younger americans. we touched on this earlier. tax cuts for the wealthy that necessity restructuring and medicare and social security for future retirees. >> we heard mitt romney say just that, so it's not just me saying

that. the important thing to keep in mind about tea party activists is that they're skeptical about elected republicans and determined to serve as what they call watch dogs over those elected office holders. should mitt romney join other republicans in washington, he will join them in being watched from below and watched by the elite funders associated with the tea party to make sure that he carries through on some of the public promises he's been making to crack down on illegal immigration, to repeal or feter the health care reform, and to cut taxes, which means in turn cutting future spending on social security and medicare. >> i'll ask you to come back to the microphone, because i want to share with you another part of the interview we did with amy cramer when she joined us in the class we conducted in the fall

of 2010. she talked about republicans and referred to what is often labeled rhinos, republicans in in name only. you write about that in your book as well. let's watch and get your reaction. >> we are a political force. we're not a political party. this is a movement. i want to make that clear right now, that, you know, as far as i'm concerned and most of the people across this country, we have no desire to be a third party. you know, i would hope that it doesn't split the republican party, and you know, it's about -- as i go back and say, it's about sending conservatives to washington. if we send some of these people to washington and you know they are conservatives and the republican party is not happy with us, so be it. a lot of people feel like and mike castle is one of them. he voted for cap and trade in the house, and if he had been elected to the senate, he would

have been a sure vote there for the senate. so a vote for mike cassel would you have been a vote for, you know, an automatic tax increase for cap and trade. so, you know, different people feel different ways about it. they'd rather send a conservative to wash than the wolf in sheep's clothing. what good does it do to to send a rino to washington if they vote with the progressive agenda all the time. it does no good if they don't toe the line with a conservative. >> i'm putting you on the spot. as you hair aear amy cramer wha you think? >> the term rino is concerning when you talk about people in your own party. i'm very involved in local politics, and you especially say in local politics the don't

agree on certain things. people their own party cannot accept differing views, i think it leads to the fractions that happen in a party can end up destroying a party. it's very concerning. politics is all about compromise. as much as the tea party does not want us to compromise at all on certain issues, it's impossible. this country's too diverse. there are too many differing opinions. you have to compromise on some issues, and if they're not willing to compromise at all within their own party, they're going to have a real hard time in washington trying to get business done with half the people there being a completely different party. so, i mean, there's certainly issues you need to fight for. i think at times they need to tone down the rhetoric and, you know, try to get something done because if nothing gets done, nobody benefits. >> we started to see some of these demonstrations and rallies here in washington, boston and

elsewhere in the country in the summer and fall of 2009 just a couple months after the president was sworn in to office. has it changed from 2010, the midterm elections, to 12 2012 i presidential election? has their enthusiasm changed? has the mood changed? >> the most important thing to keep in mind about 2010 versus 2012 is 2010 was a midterm election for congress and state legislatdggislatures in which tf five eligible voters went to the polls and they were disproportio disproportionately older and well to do voters. in 2012 it will be closer to three out of five voters. the electorate will be more diverse and a lot more young people will go to the polls. that means that the tea party was going with the tide in 2010. i think it helped to make that

tide higher, to make republican gains higher than they would have been. they would have been high anyway. in 2012 it's all a question of who turns out and goes to the polls and whether the president's appeal to a more diverse and younger electorate prevails or an appeal from a republican that's likely to be a more moderate version of what we heard in 2010 carries the day. so i think a lot depending on that. i don't expect the tea party to have as much clout, but the enthusiasm of grassroots tea partiers and elite funders to get rid of barack obama is completely undiminished. >> peter, did you want to weigh in on that point, your thoughts? >> i agree with her on the importance of the younger voting segment, and we've seen the administration and the obama campaign. you can almost talk about them in the same beth here try to harness that already.

the president devoted his stay of the usage to his plan to tackle college tuition rates. he fops up going over to an ar bo ann ar bore, michigan and to link it to federal funding in some instances is something they hope will rez that it. the vice president over the past week was at florida state university talking about the same thing, so this is a real big deal to them. and then also there's the entire aspect of how the so-called first internet, the first social media president is, again, trying to harness the social media the way they did after the state of the union with the google plus hangout the monday after the state of the union and how the president has used the power of his campaign's website and the white house website itself also to appeal to the youth vote, to the younger

voting segment. >> we turn to you again. if there's a question from one of the students at george mason. >> george mason. sure. >> so do you think that the tea party would have emerged as quickly without the health care debate? >> that's a good question, you know. obama care, as tea partiers refer to the affordable care act of 2010, is certainly one of the flash points in tea party anger. as peter pointed out, a lot of generational issues are at stake, and remember the affordable care act extending health insurance in an affordable way to people who lack it now, and they are d disproportionalely younger working family, whereas tea party yerz fear medicare may be

cut to pay for that. that's one of the big themes used to beat up on the affordable care act in the 2010 election. we may see another round of that in 2012, but it's going to be fascinating because romney's massachusetts reform is exactly the same in almost every respect as obama's health care reform. that will be quite an interesting debate it to hear. >> yet, he says and peter you can ware in on this as well, the romney campaign says it's a state solution for a state problem. it wasn't mandated across the country. peter, first your response to what you heard from the mitt romney campaign and mitt romney himself. >> well, just what you just said, steve. the fact of the matter is that the white house and the obama campaign are not going to let voters forget that the romney massachusetts plan was partially at least their model for this, but our student here brings up a very good point about that being a flash point for the tea party

movement. lest we forget the supreme court is taking this up this term, and we can have a major turning point on this issue, this paramount domestic issue and campaign issue in june when the supreme court issues it's decision on this. >> don't they have our cameras inside that court or at least the audio for radio and television listeners? >> i'm sauer raqueler and go to ball stooifrt in muncie, indiana. my question is about you said that the tea party was unwilling to compromise, and if mitt romney becomes the nominee for the republican -- for the republicans, do you think that members of the tea party will just simply refuse to go out the to the polls and vote at all, because they don't see their

opinions being pushed forward through mitt romney? >> that's a very good question. i think most tea party people will go to the polls. older people usually do vote. and they're anxious to vote against president obama, so i expect all but a few of the ron paul supporters to turn out for the republican nominee. but they'll be keeping a close eye on mitt romney. listening to everything he says and raising a fuss when he talks about compromise or looks like he's moving back toward a 50/50 deal with democrats. >> let me go back to your point and peter's discussion about the health care in massachusetts and the debate nationally. this is how newt gingrich framed the debate after his loss in florida in which he says he's staying in this race and in order to do so to draw a stark

difference between mitt romney's candidacy and that against barack obama. >> we designed a campaign against do yukakis. it was a deliberate strategy to have bush over here on the right and dukakis as far over to the left as possible. i believe if you get involved with moderates, you're too close to the democrat. you cannot win a fight with elite media is biased against you. we tried a moderate strategy in 1996, and it failed. we tried a moderate strategy in 2008, and it failed. in order to win a debate with many somebody like barack obama when you know that "the new york times" and all the networks are foreign, you have to be far enough apart that he can't get to you. >> peter, are you part of that elite media na newt gingrich keeps talking about? >> i hope not.

no, i am not, as a matter of fact. but i do plead guilty to the horse race charge that the professor mentioned earlier. sometimes we do get carried away with our horse race analogies and the way we cover campaigns. gingrich has had a lot of success beating up on the media. we saw what happened at the south carolina debate, but it did not resonate into florida, as we subsequently learned. >> the larger point of stark differences, and we've seen this with the santorum campaign and the gingrich campaign, clearly mitt romney is ahead in the delegate count. he appears to be the nominee. anything can happen. the gingrich and santorum campaigns don't seem to be getting a lot of traction. >> no, they're not getting enough, i think. i will is have to say i've taken it for a granted for a very long time that mitt romney would be the nominee in the end. what i didn't necessarily expect was how explicitly romney would move to endorse seriously

conservative far right priorities in this campaign. i think he's done so. we can expect mitt romney to be very worried about skepticism on his right, so he will loudly reiterate his determination to get rid of obama care even if obama care and romney care are pretty much the same thing. >> let's go back to some questions. bob, there's one from your campus at george mason. zooun, i actually have a question of the doctor. she points out that the tea party had a disproportionate influence on the 2010 elections because there were fewer people out to strovote in a midterm election. more generally we're seeing a lot about the tea party. is that because there are more people who think this way, or is it the same number of people who have just gotten organized and what's the import of that

question for their future influence? >> an excellent point. i don't think their numbers influence for future votes? >> it's an excellent point. i don't think their numbers are increasing, and we know that americans in general are teeed off at the label tea party as they become more familiar with kick ass style of campaigning that they seem to advocate. so as much as people were bucked up by media in 2010 and 2011 can have a disproportionate impact on what all of us talk about. it's probably a waning impact, but let's not kid ourselves. if republicans take the presiden presidency, the senate and the house in 2012, in 2013 they'll start voting through a lot of

these priorities even if the tea party itself is not so popular anymore. >> i'm going to get a question from one of the students at the washington center, but i'm going to ask our mutual friend who is front and center, steve klein, to weigh in in just a moment because nobody knows about social media than steve klein, and i want to go back to our earlier point how the social media network has really propelled or fueled this tea party movement in 2010, 2011 and 2012. get to that in a moment, but first a student question from the washington center. >> one of my questions is with so much resistance from the gop candidacy to believe in a more conservative manner, is there any possibility at some point in the future for the tea party movement to actually become its own third party? >> good point. are there challenges for a third party? >> no, i don't think so. because when we sat down with tea party men and women and talked with them, they both expressed their skepticism of established republican party

leaders and very pragmatically pointed out if they voted for a third party, they would vote for a democrat. we found the tea party to be pretty pragmatic about the process of politics. i don't think they'll turn to third parties, for the most part. >> let's turn to social media, if we could for just a moment. i'll start the discussion, and then steve klein, i want to turn to you and peter and bob. from my standpoint, twitter has become a key source of news and information, much more instantaneous than even the associated press used to be than i have on my laptop. so as i follow twitter during the course of the day, i can very quickly get a sense of what's being talked about, what's happening, breaking news, and so it has become really an incredible new tool in this 21st century, but it's also become an immobilizing social network tool for activists like the tea party.

so steve klein, let me turn to you for a minute. >> twitter is the oldest form of communication we know, and that's word of mouth. it's just new technology doing what we always did before. twitter is a great way to -- it's an early warning to some, really, because so many people are on it. what it demands of us as citizens is media literacy. i think peter, earlier in the day in another class, made the point that people need to, you know, differentiate between what is good and what isn't, what's useful and what isn't, and that really takes a high degree of media literacy, and media literacy to me is just another way of saying good citizenship. so it's a two-edged sword. there's a good side to it and a bad side to it, i believe. >> and to the larger point about

the tools and social media has given political activists steve klein, what are your thoughts? >> well, again, peter made the point earlier in the day that the master of these tools today is barack obama and started back in 2004, i believe, and president obama took it to new heights in 2008, and i think we're seeing it become even more important and better used in 2012. the republicans have a lot of catching up to do in that area because president obama and his campaign are very organized in their use of these tools. >> and, peter, you've seen this evolve not only in a way you do your job but also in the way this white house provides information to reporters and often going over reporters' heads using twitter to get news and information out. >> it has been disconcerting at

times for long-time reporters on the white house beat that there have been some major or semi-major announcements on presidential scheduling and other matters, steve, that have come from most often the white house communications director dan fifer on twitter. reporters are used to getting it more directly, but the white house feels it should chair this kind of information with everyone at the same time. i think the argument can be made that not everybody in this country is on twitter, even though during the third quarter, the last three minutes, i should say, of the super bowl, we're told that there were 10,000 tweets per second. but i think that there are a lot of people in this country that don't even know what twitter is. we know, of course, what it is here inside the beltway. i had the occasion recently to interview don bayer, who was the communications director for president bill clinton and talked to him about social media, and he said it is a tool,

but it's only one tool. and i think that there is a lesson in that simple statement for the white house and for all politicians, and that brings me back to the so-called traditional media that they also have, you know, a continuing major role and should not be overlooked because some people are in love with twitter. i'm on twitter. it's -- i'll put in a plug at peter maer cbs if you care to follow. it's a great tool for us, but you can't take everything you see on twitter as gospel. there is a lot of rumor hmo mongering, a lot of gossip. there are a lot of interest groups. i follow every side, every angle

as i possibly can on twitter and i am glued to it in my little corner of the white house much of the day. >> one other point and i'll get to your follow-up. peter maer, you were at the white house in 1996 when bill clinton was challenged by bob dole. he, of course, won reelection, but that was an important year because it was the first year, only 16 years ago, in which both campaigns had their own web site. and they did something remarkable at the time, they posted speeches on their web sites, no video, but speeches and texts and other information. of course, as steve klein pointed out in 2000 and 2004, campaigns started using them as a marketing tool and a fundraising tool. that was only 16 years ago. >> it's astounding what has evolved. i would say that for anyone who really wants to see how far it has come, take a look at the white house web site and the way they live streamed the president's state of the union message. it's still there and i assume

will be for some time with very impressive graphic, all visually spinning the points that the president was making in realtime. and we'll see what the republican campaigns come up with. what are they going to do at the gop convention in terms of matching that in the acceptance speeches and the other things that happen there. but it has come so far. a great point about '96. >> i think media are more fragmented, though, and the evidence seems to be that the users of media and those who watch television versus those who use the internet or twitter, they sort out a little bit bipartisanship and age. now, we were very impressed in our work with the grassroots tea partiers that a lot of old men

and women had become quite active on the internet without calling their grandchildren for advice. so we were impressed with that, but we didn't hear that any of them were tweeting. and we did hear that many of them watch fox news from six to eight hours a day, which is not something you will find among college students. college students don't watch as much television, and they use other sources to get information and news, a lot of them. so i think we have to remember that these things do sort out a little bit by age groups, and the age groups sort out in partisanship as well. >> and nobody follows it more closely than bob lichter, so bob, if you want to weigh in, please. >> general twitter users trend older than some of the other social media like faceb